1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to indexing and linking information, specifically to both paper-based and electronic-based assemblies of information stored in forms and documents with additional application to integrating paper-based and electronic-based data systems.
2. Description of Prior Art
Historically, forms and documents have been widely distributed throughout society as paper-based and electronic-based data files, books, journals, catalogs, reports, newspapers, flyers, letters, memoranda, applications, tabular data, sounds, images, and other types of materials. An assembly of these materials defines a vast informational and object database, herein referred to as an assembly of informational items.
An example of an assembly of informational items is a collection of personal notes and professional journal articles a doctor, scientist, or lawyer maintains. The notes might be stored in a loose-leaf notebook and each journal placed in chronological order on shelves. Alternately, to facilitate retrieval, individual articles might be removed from the journals, indexed, and stored in alphabetical order or by category in a filing cabinet. Many advantages are gained by assembling informational items so that they may be efficiently stored, retrieved, and analyzed to create knowledge.
Today, advances in computer technology have provided a plurality of electronic media such as ferromagnetic rotating memory devices, magneto-optical disks, optical disks, and static random access memory herein below referred to as electronic-based media. The availability of said media provides the means to create, store, print, and disseminate increasingly large amounts of data at increasing higher rates. The resulting volume of publications has overwhelmed the capacity of present filing and indexing systems making it difficult to retrieve, assemble and analyze information to create knowledge.
In addition to the flood of published information, there are growing requirements in industry and commerce for individuals to schedule activities, manage resources, and document personal observations or actions in forms-based journal systems. Risk management and quality assurance practices make it necessary to apply published information to the analysis of this journal-based data to solve problems and implement solutions. As will be shown below, there is no system or methodology for indexing and linking various parts of journal-based and filed information into a comprehensive and useful assembly that facilitates analysis and creation of knowledge.
A review of prior art reveals a rich history going back to at least 1868. Numerous attempts have been made to index an assembly of informational items of one type or another with the purpose of making the search and retrieval of information easier and quicker. Significant examples of prior art include the introduction of tab dividers in 1877 by Roberts (U.S. Pat. No. 191,885) and more recently, pressure sensitive adhesive backed labels introduced by Cunningham in 1974 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,426). There have been various inventions to combine calendars and a memorandum book such as that of Collins in 1879 (U.S. Pat. No. 199,796R) and that of Gedzelman In 1979 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,019). Attempts were made to handle overflow of entry data or group together discontinuous entries by Schlicht in 1886 (U.S. Pat. No. 347,305) and White in 1897 (U.S. Pat. No. 587,167). In 1896 Stamford (U.S. Pat. No. 564,117) proposed the use of mechanical devices and pre-punched cards to index and retrieve paper-based information.
A review of the literature pertaining to filing large amounts of paper-based information reveals assigning partitioned sets of short numeric indicia to file folders for ease of manual retrieval. References to pre-assignment of indicia and provision for cross-linking was not found. A reference for this information is Health Information Management by Edna K. Huffman, RRA, Physician's Record Company, Berwyn, Ill., 10th Edition, 1994 ISBN 0-917036-17-4; in particular chapter 8: Filing Methods, Storage, and Retention pages 276-289.
A review of accounting practices reveals the routine use of a posting reference field similar to Smith's invention cited herein above, which allow for simple, single level cross-referencing between General Journal entries and General Ledger accounts. The system requires using dates to make the link specific and does not provide the means to expand the assembly of informational items beyond the accounting data. A reference for this information is Accounting Principles by Solomon, Lanny M., et al., Harper & Row, Publishers, 1983 ISBN 0-06-046348-1; in particular chapter 2: Processing Accounting Information pages 51-53.
Every solution put forth by prior art ignores the special requirements of paper-based forms, two-dimensional displays, record level indexing, and informational linking needed to provide a rich and flexible methodology for creating knowledge from an assembly of informational items while providing an efficient means of retrieving important data. As presently designed, two-dimensional paper-based forms and documents do not provide the capability to enter variable amounts of symbolic, graphical, textual or numeric data without requiring that another entry field or form be overwritten, an odd piece of paper be inserted, or the overflow data be stored elsewhere threatening the integrity of that entry or other entries. As presently designed, paper-based systems do not provide a way to easily integrate new or redesigned forms, documents, and tables of information without disrupting the organizational integrity, indexing system, and links. As presently designed, forms and document systems do not provide an efficient and effective way to link-together entry records stored in more than one part of the assembly of informational items in the absence of electronic-based data systems. When created and stored on electronic media, these links cannot be recapitulated in paper-based reports below the tabular level. These deficiencies prevent the creation of useful compound documents which reflect the complexity and interrelationships between a plurality of informational items and thereby limits the creation of knowledge and ease of retrieval of important information.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved indexing system that allows for the use of a sophisticated linking methodology which provides a simple and efficient means for interrelating multiple entries located at different points in an assembly of information. This improved indexing system is also needed to provide a highly organized record structure that allows for any degree of integration of paper-based systems with electronic-based informational assemblies.